Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Darwin Volunteer Coast Guard Flotilla Commander Simon Dorman says the not for profit group is looking for a new home base

Transcript

Darwin Volunteer Coast Guard Flotilla Commander Simon Dorman says the not for profit group is looking for a new home base · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that Darwin's Volunteer Coast Guard they do a
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: wonderful job and really they're out and about. They're doing
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: quite a lot around the place, but with no financial assistance,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and they do certainly rely on their volunteers who give
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: up plenty of time to provide search and rescue responses
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: alongside the water Police. And joining me on the line
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: right now is Darwin's Volunteer Coast Guard current flotilla commander
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Simon Dorman. Good morning to you, Simon.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, good morning Katie. How are you?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really good, great to have you on the show. Simon.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: For those out there listening who don't really know what
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Darwin's Volunteer Coast Guard do, tell us a bit more
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: about your role.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Well, basically, it's a national organization, say on the East case,
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: it's well funded and lots and lock volunteers.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Big clubhouses and so forth.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: In the territory it's a little bit different. It's run
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: by a very small, dedicated crew of volunteers and we
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: basically run it ourselves. So we have to do our
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: funding for rents, maintaining our assets, all that sort of thing.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: But in saying that, we are a marine search and
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: rescue organization. So two o'clock in the morning, we'll get
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: a call, can you come and assist in a toe
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: back to go on a beach or whatever, And we're there.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So it's that sort of service. So we're out there
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: for the general voting public. But we at this time.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: We do need our assistance because we have had a
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: long association with one of those lovely clubhouses down overlooking
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: Fanny Bay.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: But since then we have lost our demountable where we
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: used to house our office and do all our admin
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: So now we are basically looking for somewhere to set
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: up again.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: All right, so you need a new sort of home,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I guess you'd say, yeah, we love and like you.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Know what it's like these days with commercial rents through
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the roof. We're looking for a kind sponsor to help
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the Coast Guard out. You know, maybe you know somewhere
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: close to the water would be nice, but hey, we're
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: open to any suggestions. Yeah, because we train all our
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: volunteers up. So most people don't realize that the Volunteer
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Coast Guard Association it's a non for profit organization, but
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: we are also are a registered training organization, so that
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: means all our volunteers who come in. They get trained
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: up to a standard of general purpose hand I think
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: it's called which is an industry recognized skill. So you
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: can take that skill and move into state or whatever,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: which I'm not telling people to do that because a
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: lot of people do already. You know what darlino revolving
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: door yep. Yeah, But so that's that's a little bit
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: about that.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so made at the moment, I know that
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you've got you obviously, your your main rescue boach is
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: the Pete Davies which was named in honor of our great,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: my great mate, our great mate, Pete Davies. But you're
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: also sort of you have recently refermed it to bring
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it back to it's now former glory and hopefully able
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to service the Darwin community for another decade or so.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: So we know that that Pete Davies is out there
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: on the water exactly as he should be. But look,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: talk us through with the home that I guess you're after,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: and you're after a sponsor to help out with that.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: What do you need A big space? How much space
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: do you need?
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Well put it this way, a couple of couple of
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: deaths with a few computers, the printer, and maybe a
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: long table so we can hold our train without having.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: To knock on people's doors and see if we can
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: use their clubrooms or use the community room somewhere. We
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: just want to have something that's a little bit more permanent,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: just so that we've got peace of mind so we
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: can go and do our job for the next ten years.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, it just makes it easier to
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: have everything set up. I don't have to take the laptop,
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: plug it into an overhead somewhere, and we just want
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: to be able to operate like they do on the
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: East Coast.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, which I think is fair enough. Simon
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: tell our listeners, like, how often is the Coast Guard
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: getting called out to help people that are in a
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: spot of bother?
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Well, put it this way, it's been operating for over
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: sixty years on the East coast Darwin, it's been going
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: for well over fifteen years and in that time we've
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: had over five hundred callouts. We get out our callouts
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: from the water Police might be over one side of
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: town and they might say, oh, here's a job, can
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: you do that so? Or it might be yachties coming
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: into Darwin from traveling around. Obviously your breakdowns in Darwin
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Harbor are quite numerous. And also it's just anything you
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: name it as anything, community events as well, like I
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: know last year and the Samba party was on, Yeah
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: we got the call, we got the call out. Can
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: you help want it to that as well. So we're
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: there just for safety on the water, which.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Is wonderful, you know, and we all love being out
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: on the water, so it's a wonderful thing to have
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the volunteer coast Guard, the Darwen Volunteer Coast Guard. Mate,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: are you on the lookout for additional volunteers as well?
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Do you always need volunteers?
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: We are always looking and we are desperate for volunteers.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Skippers or anybody with on water experience would be fantastic.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: But saying that, if you haven't got the experience and
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: you still want to volunteer, we've got to select crew
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: that do during the week because a lot of us
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: still work obviously yep, but so retirees during the week,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: we've got a select group. And then the weekends. If
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: you if you work during the weekend, you've only got
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: weekends or one weekend a month. Sure, sign up and
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: we'll get you trained up so you know what you're doing,
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: and so when you go out on the water in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: your own boat, you'll know your central equipment to take
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: and know what a marine radio is and how to
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: use it, man overboard procedures, you know, all the good
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: things that everyone should have before they venture out on
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: our remote coastline.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Simon, anybody out there this morning listening who can maybe
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: help out in terms of you know, sponsoring, you know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: for somewhere for you guys to sort of have your
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: computers and that kind of thing. Or anybody out there
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: listening who wants to become a volunteer, where's the best
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: place for them to head for a bit more information.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: Look, I leave the.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: Judy Skipper number with you, Katie, so anyone can bring
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: up one O four point nine or else they can
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: just jump online and go to ww dot Coastguard dot
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: com dot AU as a general heading, and you'll just
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: go to flotilla find the location Tine Darwin and click
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: on that and then.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Send off an inquiry.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: But by all means, we are here, we are ready
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: to go. We just need some assistance to find a
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: proper home. He Look, if you ever want to come
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: down and jump on.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Pete Davies.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: You'd be amazed at how good it looks. Now job
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: that's got new engines, been updated.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: So oh, he'd be thank you very much. He would
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: be loving that. He'd love that he's had a paint
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: job and that he's looking so I'm very very happy
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: to hear that. Simon. Thank you so much for having
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: your chat with us this morning.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Mate.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: We'll get in contact with you if anybody contacts us,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: but otherwise they can indeed head to the website.